THE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE.

Evening Star, Issue 11265, 12 June 1900, Page 1

THE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE.

At the banquet of the British Empire League m honor of the colonial troops in South Africa, at which the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and many leading statesmen were present, the Prime Minister proposed "Her Majesty's Imperial Forces," especially including the Colonial Contingents. The Prince of Wales, he said, in responding to the toast of his health, had already pointed out the splendid qualities which the colonial soldiers had displayed their magnificent courage, their admirable training, their groat skill, and it was known how greatly they had assisted in many serious conflicts. Not only had they assisted, but they had borne the brunt of many conflicts, and had suffered as rnuch as any part of Her Majesty's forces in the terrible dangers through which the troops had had to pass. They had done this for no immediate interest of their own. They had not been led to it by matters in which their own communities weie, in the first instance, interested. They had been drawn to it by sympathy for* their fellowsubjects of the Queen ; by their enthusiasm for the Empire over which she reigns. It was a magnificent spectacle, which, he thought, had taken the people at Home a little by surprise, and had taken the world at large very much mora sji. Foreign nations had fancied that the great British Empire, which looked so largo upon the map, was so separated by distant seas that its practical utility for co-operation or the exercise of patriotic force was entirely destroyed. But they had learned their mistake. They had found that the seas did not entirely and absolutely separate the parts of the Empirefrom each other, and from what has taken place they may be able to foresee that, as time goes on, the parts of the Empire will be drawn much more closely together, and the intensity of its force increased in proportion. The service which the Colonial Contingents had rendered in tho field was splendid and unexampled ; and yet, to his mind, it was exceeded by another service which they had rendered, in that they had drawn the Empire together When- men had fought, when they had risked their lives, whon they allowed their blood to flow in a common cause under a common flag, in enthusiasm for a common Queen, they had sentiments toward each other which no othe.r emotions could efface, and they feel bound by a tie which is superior and greater than any of the ties produced in the ordinary process of the growth of nations. "They are linked together by a link that " can never break, and thev have a mutual |' interest for all that takes place in all " parts of the Empire, and a mutual call " lor mutual sacrifice, to. which never "under any circumstances can they be "false. It is a great event which this "war and the devotion of the colonial "troops have brought about." Nothing was more strange than the consensus with which other nations—he did not speak of Governments, because their conduct had been, uniformly correct—and. especially the gutter Press of other nations, had joined in denouncing the action of Great Britain and in traducing the bravery of the British troops. He had said that there was nothing more remarkable, but perhaps more remarkable was tho utter indifference with which these denunciations had been regarded. But why, he asked, was this indifference \ It was due in no small degree to tho appreciation of the fact that from one end of the world to the other—from Australia to Canada, from the Cape to Hongkong— Her Majesty's subjects, who understood the matters in dispute, and were capable of judging them, approved of the course which had been taken, and proved earnestly for tho victory of tho British arms. "We know that, after what the " colonies have done, we arc a much more "importaut nation than we were. Our "character is in reality more respected, "our wishes are more regarded." In concluding a most interesting spaech Lord Salisbury remarked that the result of this strange growth of an Empire within so brief a period had set people thinkiug whether they could not help Nature and Providence a bit, and push it further by artificial contrivances. Taking a general view, he should be inclined to discountenance any assistance to anticipate the natural working of the circumstauces in the Mother Country, and the colonies find themselves. Consi itutions which were due to legislative enactments were infinitely weak compared to those which have grown up under the impulse of the aspirations and instincts of" the people whom they concern. The concurrence of the world's causes to use a more modern phrase, which he would prefer.to call the causes of Providence —had brought together the parts of the Empire in a wonderful union, had given them a force which all the world wasf coustrained to recognise, and which, if allowed to grow by its own laws and according to the impulse of its own vitality, would undoubtedly exercise an influence over the character and the progress and the habits of tha world such as had never been exercised by any Empire before.